What kind of Populism? Dimensions and Varieties of Populism in Two Spanish Regions

Despite increasing research on populist discourse, we know little about how populist discontent actually takes shape in the minds of ordinary citizens. Prior research has operated with a deductive framework, approaching populism as a set of psychological traits that assumes underlying values, their interrelations, and their relation to other discourses like pluralism. Bridging new theoretical perspectives on the multi-dimensionality of populism with methodological advances in multivariate statistics, in this paper we explore how populism can take shape as various types of discourses revolving around the issue of popular sovereignty. Using original data from two Spanish regions (Catalunya and Andalucía), we propose three key findings. First, populism can take shape combining various attitudinal dispositions, including pluralism, and a number of combinations emerge as meaningful discourses in both regions. Second, no "populist" voter exists, with populist parties drawing support from people holding different views on popular sovereignty. Third, a wedge nevertheless exists between the kinds of discourses most prevalent within the electorates of mainstream and populist parties, supporting the thesis that populism constitutes a new "cleavage."